re: What was Hitler’s worst blunder?

Professionals study Logistics.

On 31 July 1941, the spearhead motorized units of the German Army Group Center (in Russia) were 432 miles away from the nearest supply railhead. Trucks and horse wagons had to transport the supplies from the railhead to the units.

The mistake here was that the German Railroad Service was not mobilized, equipped and prepared to provide adequate supplies to the front line in Soviet Russia.

In 1942, all German units headed towards Stalingrad were supplied by ONE SINGLE railroad track. That one single track was TOTALLY inadequate to supply the tanks, trucks, airplanes, etc. of an entire Army Group. Another track supported the drive to the southern oil fields -- also inadequate to the task.

Ask any combat veteran what a critical scarcity of ammunition does to combat effectiveness. Field Artillery cannot adequately support attacks. Vehicles don't have fuel to adequately maneuver. Direct fire heavy weapons have insufficient ammo to provide common tasks such as suppression by fire. All of these kinds of problems were present in 1942 even before 6th Army was surrounded.

In fact, the German units in Russia often experienced these kinds of supply problems in 1941 even before winter, because, as I said, the nearest supply railhead was 432 miles away from the spearhead units.

Hitler and his henchman devoted a ton of resources to transporting Jews, gypsies, political opponents and the like to concentration camps; they couldn't be bothered with transporting food, supplies and ammo to their armies.

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Hitler and his henchman devoted a ton of resources to transporting Jews, gypsies, political opponents and the like to concentration camps; they couldn't be bothered with transporting food, supplies and ammo to their armies.

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Yes indeed! Absolutely correct!

The Nazi German nation NEVER totally mobilized key war industries for war, which we know from Albert Speer himself.

There are other egregious examples of the use of key war-making resources for non-military purposes throughout the war. Heavy construction equipment and materials such as reinforced concrete is a good example of this: The Gauleiters were able to grab concrete and building equipment when they wanted non-military personal building projects done in their home districts.

Yes, the Nazi German nation was not fully mobilized for war, even on the date of the invasion of the Soviet Union, and, Speer's book and other history indicate that complete war mobilization in reality never happened.

Common sense would tell you that it took a substantial amount of resources to round up, organize and carry out the capture and removal of millions of people from all over Europe to camps.

They planned and executed their extermination plans to the tee; yet their troops in Russia lacked Winter clothing, food, bullets, etc.

How could that happen? Crazy people do crazy things.

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Besides going full retard and invading the Soviet Union.

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Birth..

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What was Hitler’s worst blunder?
besides going full retard and invading the Soviet Union.

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Diverting troops from the drive to Moscow to capture the city of Kiev. If Hitler had just encircled and bypassed Kiev then his forces would have arrived in Moscow roughly three weeks before they did. Zhukov barely had enough time to call in reinforcements from Siberia and set up the defense of Moscow as it was. If the Germans would have arrived there three weeks sooner they would have arrived before winter, arrived before Zhokov had his defenses ready, and most importantly arrived before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor which freed up the troops from SIberia that were experts fighting in the snow.

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Wasting resources in Africa. He could have pulled off the invasion of Russia had he not sent resources to Africa in an attempt to bail out the Italians.

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The Balkans, too.

Subpar Art

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...train cars as the trains were rated for US railways which had a different gauge size than the ones the Soviets used. 

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That was another problem for Germany. They had to modify all of the tracks into the systems used by the western world. Amongst things mentioned by Military Historians looking a bit deeper than high school history, that was a HUGE factor in the Russian campaign. Throw that right in there with Dunkirk and not having better personnel along the northern French coast. I'd add in his field commanders not blowing up every single bridge as they retreated from the coast. That added time could have given Germany just long enough for a reliable jet aircraft fleet and strong enough rockets to hit any capital in Europe/USSR. They could have gotten a peace treaty that would have likely reset the map back with Germany taking Prussia back and the Soviets taking the rest of Poland.

The butterfly effect of a Dec 1944 truce on the current states of Japan/China/Vietnam/Korea are mindboggling.